Undue Influence by Anita Brookner

Author:Anita Brookner [Brookner, Anita]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 978-0-307-49236-4
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 1999-06-28T16:00:00+00:00

Eleven

When Wiggy called to say that Eileen Bateman had died I confess that my first thought was, Oh, no, not another death, but Wiggy was upset so I put down the receiver and went round there.

Eileen Bateman was a fairly mysterious woman who occupied the top floor of Wiggy’s building. When the café was closed they were the only two people in the house, a fact which bothered neither of them. Naturally they had got to know each other during the time that they had lived in such close proximity, but Eileen Bateman seemed entirely self-sufficient and had proved herself to be an excellent neighbour, if excellence is demonstrated by an ability to give no trouble, make no noise, receive no visitors, and be absent for most of the day.

We knew that she was retired, and that she had been a buyer for women’s fashions in a department store. She was unmarried and always had been. Wiggy got to know her better when Eileen Bateman, in the throes of flu, had telephoned and asked apologetically if Wiggy had any aspirin. She added, hoarsely, that she had no belief in patent medicines, but she thought that aspirin might ease her headache. On her recovery she had visited Wiggy, and, with profuse thanks, had presented a bunch of flowers. They had got to know each other better, and Miss Bateman, or Eileen as she became, was, I suspect, the recipient of Wiggy’s confidences with regard to her boyfriend, as I was not. I did not mind this, as I knew that Wiggy liked to maintain a certain tacit pride in the face of my scepticism, but when she mentioned that Eileen had read the tea leaves and promised her a late marriage I drew the line. Wiggy knew my views on this matter and henceforth remained prudent, but I rather thought that several of these sessions took place and that if I was spared the details it was because Wiggy herself was fairly ashamed of them. Thus, by mutual consent, the matter was not discussed.

Nevertheless Eileen Bateman was a feature of the landscape and a subject of discussion between Wiggy and myself. She impressed us as a woman who knew how to live alone. When she retired from the department store she had reinvented herself by buying a bicycle and continually planning excursions: Shakespeare country, the Gower Peninsula, the Somerset coast. Every summer, after extensive research, she put her bike on the ferry and went to France. Wiggy had in her kitchen a plate inscribed Souvenir de Quimper which Eileen had brought her after a tour of Brittany. Her bicycle was the subject of some altercation since it had to be kept in the passage. The café owners objected to this although they had their own entrance; against their fairly vociferous opposition Eileen won the day. I have noticed that single women sometimes possess these capabilities.

She was small, grey-haired, unimpressive but disarming, owing to her permanent expression of good will. I could

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